Reasons Deltarune Is One of Gaming’s Most Fascinating Ongoing Stories
Deltarune is the highly anticipated indie RPG sequel to Undertale, Toby Fox's hit crowdfunded RPG. Just like Undertale, Deltarune is praised for its deep themes, combat systems, original story, music, and highly original…
Deltarune is the highly anticipated indie RPG sequel to Undertale, Toby Fox's hit crowdfunded RPG. Just like Undertale, Deltarune is praised for its deep themes, combat systems, original story, music, and highly original approach. In my opinion, there are few games quite like Deltarune, which is a testament to Toby Fox's unique vision.
From the way Deltarune plays around with player agency to its narrative and mechanical flourishes, the game is a masterpiece on multiple levels. Both its literal story and the history of its development and its relationship to Undertale make Deltarune one of the most fascinating stories in gaming today.
10 Deltarune is a Personal Story with a Personal History
Long Before We Saw It, Toby Fox Had The Idea
Toby Fox has said his initial Deltarune concept dates to 2011. It's normal for creators of all kinds to sit on an idea for a long time. I write fiction too, and I've got ideas knocking around in my head dating back to my childhood. What's cool about Deltarune, though, is that unlike most big commercial game projects, Deltarune is a very personal story with a very personal history.
Fox attempted to make the project before, but stopped. He even reused some of its music in Undertale, and he decided to make Deltarune around the same time as the Undertale Kickstarter. What I find really interesting about this is that you can see older pieces of Deltarune in Undertale, and you can, of course, see Undertale in Deltarune. This kind of authentic, personal approach is something that really only shines through in indie games, and Deltarune is an especially good example.
9 Its Release History Is Part of the Phenomenon
From Free Demo to Paid Release and Free Expansions
Initially, Fox wanted to wait until he'd finished Deltarune before releasing it all at once. That didn't pan out. In the end, he found that waiting for it to be finished was agony for both him and the fanbase. That called for a change of tack.
I think the actual release history is particularly fascinating, especially because it changed over the game's lifetime. Deltarune has been available as a free demo, paid expansions, and finally a paid game with free chapter expansions. It's hard to imagine this approach working for the vast majority of games, but Toby Fox and Deltarune managed it.
8 Deltarune Has an Unusually Public Development Process
Watching the Development is Almost Part of the Game Itself
These days, the odd big studio will commit to heavily polished and planned developer diaries or communications with fans, but Fox makes fans feel part of the process. He discusses the game's development in genuinely open terms, telling fans about unfinished chapters, testing, technical problems, and even changes from prior plans.
This approach is fundamentally different from most other games with this level of cultural sway. Fans get to watch the development in near real time, making the development process almost part of the game experience itself. I find this pretty compelling, as someone interested in both playing games and the process of making them — and I think the Deltarune fanbase does, too.
7 Deltarune Was Too Big to Make It Like Undertale
From Personal Project to Team Sport
Deltarune started life as a much smaller personal project, but over time it became clear that Fox lacked the team and resources needed to produce the game at the desired level of quality and scale. By 2024, Fox had hired additional developers, with a team that includes specialized programmers, localizers, testers, production professionals, and multiple other areas.
This has allowed the game to evolve too. Many games undergo personnel changes and expansions throughout their development, but Deltarune is particularly interesting because we get to see it — and we get to play through it at different points in its evolution. Chapter 5's new platforming mechanics were described as "jaw-dropping," a feat that would have been impossible without this ongoing evolution.
6 The Waiting Is Part of the Experience
A Rare Win for Serialized Gaming
I really like this aspect of Deltarune. Nobody really likes waiting for new content, but hear me out on this. Deltarune is a fascinating game because it evokes the feeling of old-school serialized fiction, but as a game. Lots of live-service games (we all have our favorite examples of these) do this with their seasons of piecemeal content, but where that feels egregiously bad, Deltarune's approach feels reasonable.
Part of that is because it's an indie game and Toby Fox has earned his leeway, but I think another big part of it is that it provides space for fans to wonder and theorize. It really is like old-school pulp fiction serials in that way. Deltarune is the only game I've personally seen where this kind of serialization enhances the experience rather than drags it out in an annoying way.
5 Without Undertale, You Can't Understand Deltarune
The Elephant in the Room
Undertale and Deltarune are inherently connected, but they're also explicitly not set in the same world. It's a kind of alternate universe scenario. That said, the fact that Undertale and Deltarune share characters, music, concepts, and ideas means you can't fully interpret Deltarune without understanding Undertale — and vice versa.
The relationship between the two games isn't simply a prequel/sequel relationship like you find in many other worlds, but something much deeper. If you've played Undertale, you simply cannot avoid applying your knowledge to Deltarune, even if it's ultimately wrong. That creates a situation where each game recontextualizes the other. I like this because just as Undertale can help us understand Deltarune, Deltarune can help us understand Undertale in an entirely new way. Its name is even an anagram of Undertale.
4 The Player May Not Be The Same Thing As The Protagonist
Kris Doesn't Want What We Want
Deltarune uses its game mechanics and narrative choices to convey a compelling concept: the player is not necessarily the protagonist. At various points in the game, we're confronted mechanically with the idea that Kris's SOUL is something distinct from Kris. The player explicitly controls the SOUL, but Kris can physically remove it from their body and do things the player doesn't want to happen.
This creates a narrative distinction between Kris and the player that few games ever make explicit in this way. I like the narrative question that comes from this. To what extent am "I" Kris, and to what extent do I merely control them? What does it mean to control a character who doesn't want to be controlled? Are we the bad guy? In many games, the distinction is meaningless and not worth examining: you are the player who controls the protagonist, and it is not an interesting question at all. Deltarune's themes, however, make this a very pertinent question, and we still don't have an answer.
3 The Weird Route
An Uncomfortable Experiment
The game's Weird Route is an optional route through the story that unfolds after Chapter 2. Lots of games have optional routes to complete certain quests, but Deltarune's unfolds across multiple chapters. The Weird Route changes Noelle's characterization, impacts the player's relationship with Kris, and alters multiple sequences across the rest of the game.
It also asks interesting questions for which answers are as yet impossible to provide. In the Weird Route, the player becomes responsible for outcomes and events the game deems horrifying. Why is that happening? How is it happening? To what extent is the player responsible? It's a cool experiment in player responsibility, and I don't think you really see this in other games at all.
2 Deltarune Deliberately Makes Us Question What's Real
How Can We Know What's Real?
Deltarune's story operates on multiple layers. You've got the standard layer where we, as players, are controlling a character in a game. Then below that, you have the character's own perception of "life" in the game world — what is "actually" happening in the game's lore. But underneath that, Deltarune places the player's agency into the narrative through the distinction between Kris and Kris's SOUL. The Weird Route makes this distinction even stronger.
But what I find interesting is that these layers have fuzzy boundaries. There's a persistent question over where, exactly, the boundaries are, such as when exactly the player is acting as a player or part of the narrative, and what's merely part of the game or true in the fictional world.
1 Deltarune is an Exploration of Choice Despite a Fixed Ending
If There's Only One Ending, What Does it Mean to Choose?
The official FAQ says Deltarune has one ending. We don't know exactly what this means, especially because the game repeatedly plays with the concepts of reality, player choice, and the narrative. Still, the idea that the game has one ending is fixed and unusually explicit.
So how does that work with the game's focus on player decisions, different routes, and consequences? The Weird Route shows us how decisions can change characters, alter scenes, events, and encounters, but it will still apparently end up in the same place. What does that mean, exactly? Deltarune promises us a single ending and then gives us multiple reasons to believe that choices matter. So how do we thread that needle? I'm not sure, and I'm excited to find out.